Posts from ‘June, 2007’

Michael Grade, Executive Chairman of Britain’s largest terrestrial commercial broadcaster ITV, has told a conference organised by the UK’s communications regulator Ofcom that the 50-year-old regional structure in England may be axed in favour of a small number of so-called ”super regions”. He said the present arrangements no longer made sense in a digital age. But he added that in areas such as [...]

The Chinese Ambassador to Liberia, Lin Sontian, has signed a contractual agreement of US$3.75 million for the revitalization of the Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS). The signing ceremony was witnessed by Chinese Ambassador to Liberia Lin Sontian, Liberia Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, William Bull and LBS Board Chairman, Johnny McClain.
Speaking at the ceremony Chinese Ambassador said his [...]

Radio Budapest broadcast its final programme in English today at 0230 UTC, which included a musical programme from the archives presented by the late Charlie Coutts. At the end of the programme, the following announcement was broadcast:
“Now I would like to call your attention to the fact that as from June 30th 2007, Radio Budapest will cease to [...]

At short notice, I had to take care of the English website, as we have some colleagues off sick at the moment. We will get back to normal over the weekend. Please bear with us.
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Monitoring observations over the past month of the Voice of Zimbabwe indicate that regular programming has yet to start. The station opened on 25 May 2007.
Harare’s state-owned The Sunday Mail reported on 27 May that the station was testing “for the next three weeks, during which time management will be fine-tuning programming and receiving feedback [...]

Indian Information and Broadcasting Minister PR Dasmunsi said he will try to introduce the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill by the end of the monsoon session of parliament, but assured it will “not gag the media”.  The minister said that he has been extensively studying the media laws of the US, Britain and Germany, among other countries, [...]

The Swiss federal government has approved a licence for a new English-language digital radio station called World Radio Switzerland. WRS, to be run by Swiss Radio and Television (SSR), will replace World Radio Geneva in November. The government also approved the launch of DRS 4 News, an all-news German-language digital radio station that SSR will begin operating at [...]

Text of press release by Radio Australia on 28 June
Melbourne: In the Pacific you can now tune into Radio Australia anytime driving to and from work, in a taxi, or while at home or in the office, simply by turning on local FM.
The ever-expanding Radio Australia FM network throughout the Pacific now delivers high quality [...]

James Purnell is to be the UK’s new Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The appointment was announced today as new Prime Minister Gordon Brown continues to build his new Cabinet. Mr Purnell, 37, replaces Tessa Jowell. Before entering parliament in 2001, he worked as a special adviser in Tony Blair’s first government [...]

The Armenian National Assembly is debating today on  government bills that could end the Armenian-language broadcasts of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a key source of information for a considerable part of Armenia’s population.
The two bills sent to the parliament late on Tuesday were swiftly condemned by local media rights groups and top opposition leaders as an [...]

Contrary to what was widely reported yesterday, Radio 10 Gold and Juize FM are not part of the deal which saw RTL Nederland buy Radio 538 along with TV channel Tien. Radio 10 Gold and Juize FM are officially part of Talpa Radio International, not Talpa Radio Nederland. Talpa Radio International also owns Radio 100FM [...]

Radio Kashmir has regained popularity among masses with the increased number of its listeners across the state. The news and commercial broadcasting (FM) section of its Srinagar Station have once again attracted the people by providing them the best news and entertainment round the clock, reports the Kashmir News Agency.
The Urdu News from Radio Kashmir [...]

The BBC’s on-demand TV service, BBC iPlayer, is to launch on 27 July, it was announced today by Ashley Highfield, Director of Future Media & Technology. ”BBC iPlayer is a free catch-up service for UK licence fee payers,” said Highfield. “Your favourite programmes from all the BBC’s network TV channels will be available to download over [...]

ProSiebenSAT.1, the German commercial television group, said today it would buy rival SBS Broadcasting in a 3.3-billion-euro ($4.4-billion deal to create Europe’s second-biggest broadcaster. ”ProSiebenSAT.1 and the shareholders of the SBS Broadcasting signed a share purchase agreement today,” the German free-to-air broadcaster said in a statement.
SBS belongs to ProSieben’s new owners, private equity groups Kohlberg Kravis Roberts [...]

Kim Andrew Elliott, audience research analyst in the US International Broadcasting Bureau, will be on VOA’s Talk to America, tomorrow, 28 June, at 1400-1500 UTC, for another discussion about international broadcasting. Kim will interview Terrence Ripmaster, author of the new book Willis Conover: Broadcasting Jazz to the World. The programme follows the news at 1400 UTC on [...]